Quote:
Originally Posted by craigs
It is premature to complain about ridership on a still-incomplete commuter railroad that officially opened its critical extension to the area's main ferry terminal only today. As of today, SMART now provides Marin and Sonoma commuters bound for San Francisco with a direct rail/boat transfer at Larkspur Landing. As for the service hours, the first weekday train heads south from the airport at 4:20 am, and the last northbound weekday train leaves Larkspur Landing at about 8:30 pm, arriving at the airport around 9:45 pm. These are hardly unusual hours for commuter railroads in suburban America.
Since the 101 is the lone freeway serving all of Marin and Sonoma counties, it's quite easy to "imagine if that money was spent on bus service improvements"--more buses stuck in the same old gridlock. SMART and the ferries are the only alternative to gridlock on the 101, and now that the two systems are connected, they should start to see ridership gains.
Larkspur Landing ferry terminal, now served by SMART commuter rail
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You are thinking about options for commuting only, but public transit shouldn't only be oriented towards commuting to a major city. In this case, bus service improvements across the two counties might have helped gain more ridership. A busway on the 101 could also be of a huge help for much cheaper if you want direct service to SF (it is an eight-lane highway after all).
All I'm saying is, even if SMART's ridership reaches 10,000 people daily after the Larkspur opening, it's still not enough for a $1 billion investment. You could build three BRTs on critical corridors with that much money.